Ramble On

It’s the Thanksgiving weekend and I’m feeling a bit lazy. I think I’ll just ramble on for awhile instead of writing a real article. Those of you reading from countries without a similar holiday may not understand much about Thanksgiving. In the United States it involves several days of overeating to the point of immobility, and sitting on a couch watching (American) football games all day. I’m not motivated to put the necessary research into writing something mentally stimulating. You might want to skip today and come back next time.


Turkey Trot

A slightly more athletic Thanksgiving activity formed in recent years, a “traditional” running race known as the Turkey Trot. Races tend to start early on Thanksgiving morning before culinary indulgences can sideline potential participants. They cover short distances, like maybe 5 kilometres or 5 miles. That way people can pretend they’re behaving in a healthy manner when, in fact, they’re simply getting ready to stuff themselves silly in a few hours.

Arlington Turkey Trot 2014. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
My local Turkey Trot a couple years ago. I didn’t take any photos this year.

Our local neighborhood began its Turkey Trot about a decade ago. My wife took great pride in signing me up the last couple years. I think she enjoyed tormenting me. There I stood on the start line once again this year at precisely 8:00 am, ready to hit the pavement with 3,000 of my closest friends.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I finished in first place for my age bracket. That should never happen. I’m not that fast. Then I noticed that she’d accidentally signed me up as a woman. For a few brief moments I claimed to be the fastest middle-aged woman in town.

Once corrected however, I fell down to fourth place for my age bracket. That still sounded impressive although it also included participants dressed as pilgrims, or with plastic turkeys on their heads, or in full Santa Clause outfits, or walking dogs. My effort wasn’t all that notable in that context. Then I spent the rest of the day eating, as expected and customary.


Mainly Marathons

That reminded me. I’ve just started planning for the next marathon race series. Longtime readers probably remembered several previous trips. I don’t run those distances, I simply drive my favorite runner from state-to-state for each event in sequence and count counties.

We’re looking at the Heartland Series for 2017. That event will arrive before I know it even though it won’t happen until late May. Races will be held in Bryan, Ohio; Niles, Michigan; Portage, Indiana; Fulton, Illinois; Clinton, Iowa; Sparta, Wisconsin and Albert Lea, Minnesota. Seven races, seven days, seven states, beginning May 28, 2017. We probably won’t do the last two races. I can only take a week off from work and it would put us too far from home to get back in time.

Anyone knowing about interesting things to see along the way can let me know in the comments. I’d also love to meet anyone who wants to race one or more races (they do have shorter options all the way down to 5K). I’ve noticed there doesn’t seem to be much of an intersection between the 12MC audience and this activity, though. Nobody took me up on similar offers in previous years, and that’s fine too. I’ll put it out there just in case.


Music Break

Since I’ve called this article Ramble On, feel free to take a break and listen to Ramble On.


Finish West Virginia

When last I left West Virginia, only six counties remained on my county counting list before I could finish the state. I spent a few moments sketching out what it would take. The result, above, demonstrated that I should be able to complete West Virginia during a long weekend. Inauguration Day falls on a Friday in 2017. I’m thinking that might be an ideal time to get away from the Washington, DC area if the weather cooperates. It will happen sometime in the next few months if it doesn’t happen then.


Blog Spam

Blog spam largely disappeared when Google changed its algorithms to penalize websites referenced by spam links. However, it seemed to make a bit of a resurgence in the last couple of months. That meant I could start tweeting the best examples again on the 12MC Twitter account: “I such a lot indisputably will make sure to don’t put out of your mind this website and give it a look on a relentless basis.


The Political Graveyard

Michigan Civil War Era Graves - Pic 13. Photo by Michael Noirot; (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Grave of US Senator Zachariah Chandler

I’ve enjoyed a slightly morbid site called The Political Graveyard lately. Want to know the final resting place of practically any politician in the history of the United States? The Political Graveyard probably catalogued it. As an example, for my recent article on Winfield Scott (who ran as the Whig candidate for President in addition to his long military career), I could have noted his burial at the United States Military Academy Cemetery (map). I’m not sure what that would have added although I still found it addictive.

How about somebody completely obscure. I selected Zachariah Chandler (1813-1879) somewhat randomly. He served as mayor of Detroit, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, and U.S. Senator, among other offices. He “Died, from a brain hemorrhage, in his room at the Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago, Cook County, Ill., November 1, 1879 (age 65 years, 326 days). Interment at Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Mich.” (map). See what I mean by addictive? It served no practical purpose. Maybe that’s why I liked it.


Stuff from Readers

Reader Joe sent a couple of interesting article links. One in particular might appeal to the 12MC audience: The Sun Has Set on Barrow, Alaska for the Final Time… Ever. Barrow, the northernmost town in Alaska went dark on November 18. The sun will rise again on January 22. However, its name will change to Utqiagvik on December 1. They’ve ditched their English name for an Inupiat Eskimo name to better align with their culture. Native speakers pronounced it something like “Oot KHAH’-ghah veek.” It reminded me of the recent change of the Wade Hampton Census Area to Kusilvak in another area of Alaska a few months ago.

Reader Rowland wondered what the U.S. map would look like if states were redrawn with equal populations. I’m still pondering that one. What would be the best way to do that? Would we also have to change boundaries, I wondered, after every decennial census?

Comments

3 responses to “Ramble On”

    1. Twelve Mile Circle Avatar

      Thanks Kevin — now I can turn my mind to other things!

  1. Rhodent Avatar
    Rhodent

    A couple of rambling thoughts (appropriate, yes) on the 50 equal states concept:

    One easy way to do it would be to regroup congressional districts. Not a perfect method, of course, but not a bad one. With 435 congressional districts and 50 states, you’d create 35 states with nine districts and 15 with eight. This is also a decent rule of thumb for figuring out how approximately what would happen with your state: Maryland, with its eight districts, is pretty close to an ideal size; North Carolina, with thirteen, is roughly a state and a half; et cetera.

    Several years ago during a slow day at work I got to playing with a similar idea. I tried to make the states more equal in population by splitting and combining states. To make it less of a headache, I made it a rule that a state could be involved in splitting or combining but not both: in other words, you could split Texas into two states, and you could merge Oklahoma with another state, but you couldn’t merge Oklahoma with part of Texas. For states that were split, I tried to figure out approximately how the state would get split, although I didn’t get bogged down in details of exact borders. I still have the list; here it is:

    UNAFFECTED STATES: Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona

    MERGED STATES:
    New England (Maine/New Hampshire/Vermont)
    Connecticut (plus Rhode Island)
    Maryland (plus Delaware)
    Alabama (plus Mississippi)
    Kentucky (plus West Virginia)
    Missouri (plus Arkansas)
    Minnesota (plus Iowa)
    Dakota (Nebraska, both Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho)
    Oklahoma (plus Kansas)
    Colorado (plus New Mexico)
    Nevada (plus Utah)
    Washington (plus Alaska)
    Oregon (plus Hawaii)

    SPLIT STATES (names are meant as approximate guides only):
    California (San Diego, Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Central California, Northern California)
    Texas (Dallas, Houston, East Texas, West Texas)
    New York (Long Island, New Amsterdam (i.e., NYC), New Netherlands (i.e., upstate))
    Florida (Southern Florida, Central Florida, Northern Florida)
    Illinois (Chicagoland, Illinois)
    Pennsylvania (East Pennsylvania, West Pennsylvania
    Ohio (East Ohio, West Ohio)
    Michigan (Detroit, Michigan)
    Georgia (Atlanta, Georgia)
    North Carolina (East Carolina, West Carolina)

    It was interesting to me how many states were basically split by making the biggest city its own state and leaving the rest of the state intact.

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